Yes, it’s great that Final Cut Pro X is now 64-bit and that it uses CPU cycles like politicians spend other people’s money— but it’s amazing to me that professionals would consider working with anything less than what I have— it takes a long time.

I am a Final Cut Pro X beginner, so experts out there might work differently, but I have to start somewhere, and FCP X seems a lot more intelligible to me than the previous inscrutable version.

Based on what I’m seeing, here are my recommendations:

Minimum 240GB 6G SSD for system/apps (480GB 6G SSD preferred).

48GB or 96GB system memory.

12-core Mac Pro with 5870 video card (or better) mandatory for serious use (no data as yet on the benefit of ultra high end video card).

The Background Tasks window shows what FCP X is doing— what percent done so far on various tasks. This is in-the-background work, so you can do whatever else you want to do at the same time.

Final Cut Pro X CPU Background Tasks window

For a short while at the beginning, FCP X uses a disappointing 400% of the 2400% possible CPU usage.

But then it picks up steam for other phases, and uses between 1300% and 1800% of CPU power. To be fair, anything beyond 1200% starts to involve virtual CPU cores (not real ones), and doesn’t mean a whole lot in practice. In other words, this is an outstanding use of CPU cores— anything of 1200% or better is all that can really be hoped for.